


Call My Bluff

by Killedbycroc



Category: You Me At Six
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-18
Updated: 2012-12-18
Packaged: 2017-11-21 12:07:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/597573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Killedbycroc/pseuds/Killedbycroc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For once, I had been able to truly be myself around a group of people that I grew to love more and more each time that I saw them. It all sounds a bit fairy tale-ish, I know, but it was the God-honest truth; You Me At Six had saved me from drowning in harsh reality.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Call My Bluff

  With all degrees of honesty, I was able to say that the past few months had been the best time of my life, no question about it. For once, I had been able to truly be myself around a group of people that I grew to love more and more each time that I saw them. It all sounds a bit fairy tale-ish, I know, but it was the God-honest truth; You Me At Six had saved me from drowning in harsh reality.

  It had been about six months ago, and a completely coincidental encounter with old-friend-from-school Josh Franceschi, which lead to me becoming the new tour photographer for You Me At Six for their final tour in the UK before going over to America for a three month tour. At first it was a little strange – well they’re my idols, of course it would be weird! However, it didn’t take me long to become more ‘normal’ around them, and soon we were all touring buddies (‘touring buddies’ usually meaning ‘getting-drunk-off-your-arse buddies’).  
  Their final UK tour was lasting for barely two months, and even though at first it had seemed like such a long time to be spending with the same group of people, here I found myself with only two shows left to go, two fleeting nights left with the most amazing people in the world.

   There was an hour left until it was show-time (well, the gig had already started, but it was the support acts that most people don’t notice), which meant the band were ‘trying to get in the zone’, also known as drinking until they got tipsy. As usual, I sat in the corner, watching everyone trying to make an arse of everyone else around them, and this more-often-than-not ended up with Matt sulking for ten minutes before going on stage (most of the time, this was Josh’s fault). To no surprise, tonight’s antics weren’t going to deviate from the usual pattern.  
  “You need to chill out, y’know Matt,” Josh stumbled slightly. “It was only a joke – I mean, how would you even try to do a turtle?” To the shock of absolutely no-one, Matt stomped diva-ishly out of the green room, more likely than not heading outside for a few minutes (it’s nice how refreshing the air can be at dusk). “What did I do this time?” Josh turned and asked everyone left. Most people shrugged their shoulders, not having the patience or energy to explain for the millionth time what was wrong with everything he had just said.  
  “Dolphins actually rape turtles, you know...” I muttered as silently as possible, knowing from personal experience how hard it was to reason with him. Nonetheless, Josh must have had super-sonic hearing that night, especially over the faint (okay, not-that-faint) background noise of the current support act.  
  “What the... Where the hell did you hear that Sophie? Geez, that’s just messed up. At least I was just kiddi...” Abruptly coming to a halt when he noticed all of us staring at him, he picked up a set-list that was near to him and pretended to read it, clearly realising that he _might_ have overstepped the mark tonight.  
  Deciding that I’d had enough of the antics for the moment, I made my excuses to leave. “I’m just gonna go check up on Matt.” The most acknowledgement I got was a barely-noticeable nod from Max – plainly they were trying to get focused for playing.  
  Stepping out into the hallway, the noise from the support act got the smallest bit louder, making it pretty much impossible for me to think – fresh air and peace and quiet was definitely needed. I made my way outside, thinking that it might actually be good to join Matt for once. However, when I opened the doors that led to freedom and revelled in the gloriously cool night air, I noticed that he was nowhere to be seen. Figuring that he’d probably finished with his hissy fit, I leaned against the metal railing; it really was nice just to be able to have some time to myself.  
  My mind wandered, for how long I wasn’t entirely sure, but it must have been for a while because the next thing I knew, Josh was casually slouching next to me, his hand briefly brushing against mine. “Geez, Josh,” I muttered once I’d gotten over the shock of him appearing out of nowhere, “no need to be so ninja-like.”  
  “But it’s fun! Plus you’re the only one who doesn’t seem to mind me bugging them.” His trademark puppy-dog eyes came out in full force, though he hadn’t seemed to realise that I was completely immune to them by now.  
  “Stop it, you know that doesn’t work on me.” Giving up his adorable attempt at persuasion, Josh resumed leaning on the barrier. “Hey, what’s up? You look like they’ve just announced Christmas has been cancelled.”  
  With a melancholy sigh, he turned back to face me. “I’m gonna miss you when we go to America. You’ve been fun to have around.”  
  Taking a breath before speaking, I mundanely recited the lines that had been prepared in my mind for weeks. “I can’t afford to go with you, not for that long. Plus you know we’d be trying to kill each other after another three months together. It’s just better this way if I don’t go.”  
  “But that’s what siblings do! You’re the best non-related little sister I’ve ever had!” And out came the eyes again...  
  “You’re lucky you said ‘little’, or else Elissa would have murdered you,” I smirked cheekily back.  
  “Ah, you know she loves you too. Plus it makes a good distraction when you two are talking for me to go and put a fake spider in her bag.” All I could do in response was facepalm; he was such the typical younger brother. “So you see, that’s why you have to come along with us, so we stay innocent and all.”  
  “That would mean you actually _had_ innocence in the first place,” I muttered to myself. “Look, I’m sorry, there’s just no way for me to get to America, okay?”  
  Josh was getting desperate by now. “I’ll pay for your ticket!”  
  “But then I’d be conscious about having to pay you back.” It was getting harder and harder to come up with reasons for not going now.  
  “Then don’t pay me back, call it a late birthday present. Please Soph,” he brought out the puppy-dog eyes once more, “I’m _begging_ you to come.”  
  “I...” Looking at his face, it killed me, knowing that he wasn’t even putting on an act at that moment in time. “I can’t, I’m sorry Josh.” Unable to deal with what would more than likely be yet another sad face, I headed back inside, wiping away a solitary tear that managed to escape while I wasn’t looking.

  Yet again, they all managed to perform brilliantly on stage, and I got some more-than-decent shots of them playing, so in theory it should have been a great night, one of the best in fact, but I was still bummed out about mine and Josh’s conversation – it was just the fact that everything was going to end soon, too soon, and I just wasn’t ready to deal with going back to a life where I didn’t know what to do. My purpose was to be here, with these five wonderful people, but I wasn’t willing to give myself this little piece of happiness for just this once, just this one time. It was starting to become physically draining now.  
  Deciding that I couldn’t handle hanging out after the show, I made the obvious choice to go straight back to the hotel, hoping that sleep would help to clear my mind out a bit. As I walked into the green room to grab my coat and bag, I was surprised by just how quiet it all was – well, that was something that could only be achieved while those lot were otherwise occupied. All set and ready to go, I headed towards the door, only for it to swing open before I could reach it. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t know you’d be behind it...”  
  “Don’t worry about it,” I smiled bravely at Max, “at least you didn’t hit me with it.” I waited for him to move out the way of the door so that I could leave the venue, but he wasn’t budging. “Um, can I get past you? I’m not really up to hanging with you guys tonight.”  
  Staring at him for a few seconds, it became obvious that he wasn’t going to move anytime soon. “I wanted to talk to you, Sophie, and it really can’t wait any longer.”  
  “Oh, um, okay.” I moved back into the room, dumping my bag next to me as I sat down on the couch. Watching as Max sat down on the couch directly opposite me, I could quite clearly see the tension on his face rising with every passing second. “So, what did you want to talk about?” I asked him with a smile on my face, but there was a queasiness that was beginning to form in my stomach.  
  He took just a moment to try and compose himself, but it seemed to do little to help him. “Look, I know that you said you’re not going to come to America with us, but I want you to seriously reconsider.” I was about to open my mouth, to recite my lines once more, but Max stopped me. “Before you say anything about not being able to afford it, then I want you to see this.” Out of his pockets he pulled something and handed it to me – it was a slightly crumpled airplane ticket.  
  “But...” I looked back and forth between Max and the ticket in confusion. “Why did you get this for me? You know I won’t be able to pay you back for this for ages...”  
  “Sophie, it doesn’t matter – I bought it because I want you to come along with us.”  
  I sighed lightly. “I don’t care what Josh has told you, I said I can’t go to America, and that’s final. End of.” Staring at Max, he couldn’t seem to return my gaze.  
  “...Josh doesn’t know that I bought the ticket. Nobody knows.” Wait, what did he say? With my mouth open wide in disbelief, he started to explain before any words had chance to find their way out. “I bought you the ticket because... because I know that if you’re not there with me, then I’m going to miss you like crazy...”  
  “We’ll be able to text and stuff,” I attempted to reassure him, but something in my mind told me that wasn’t what he meant. “We’d be able to keep in contact with each other.”  
  “That’s the problem, though.” By this point he’d stood up, towering over me. “I don’t just want to keep in contact with you, I want to have you there, _with_ me.”  
  “W...what do you mean?”  
  Max crouched down right in front of me, so that his eyes were perfectly level with mine. “Sophie, I like you, a lot, and I want you to come to America with us so that we could have a chance at properly being together.” I could hardly understand the words that I was hearing – as a sentence, they made no sense to me.  
  Staring back at his face, I could see the hope he had in his eyes and smile, how he felt so proud that he had finally managed to confess – and that’s why it killed me to do what I did next. “I’m sorry, I just...” My voice trailed off, and before I had to deal with seeing Max’s disappointment, I grabbed my bag and ran out of the room, never letting myself look back once. 

  That night, sleep seemed to escape me, as I found myself staring blankly at the ceiling, not knowing what I should go over in my mind about first – I mean, Max had just declared he liked me in _that_ way from seemingly out of nowhere, and then there was the whole ticket thing... Feeling around in my coat pocket (I hadn’t changed, I just went to bed in what I walked through the door in), I fished the plane ticket out and stared at it momentarily, the light from outside the window just making the words visible. It was just impossible for my head to wrap itself around the fact that he seemed so _sure_ about what he was saying to me, like he had been thinking about it for a long time... But we’d only known each other properly for six months, I told myself, that’s nowhere near enough time to fall in love with someone.  
  Was it? 

  Sometime around 4am, I had managed to drift off, only to have my alarm wake me up two hours later – not having the energy to grumble, I dragged myself out of bed and into the bathroom, where I scrubbed my face raw with a washcloth to try and wake myself up enough so as I wouldn’t accidently walk into any doors. Still, it took me nearly an hour to get ready, meaning that I had to sprint out of my room and down the road (whilst dragging my bag behind me) to get to the train station in time – I only just managed it as the train doors were beginning to shut, and I somehow squeezed myself through them. Luckily, as it was so early, there weren’t many people to witness my Indiana Jones-style jump onto the train, and it also meant that I was able to find a seat with a plug for my laptop relatively easily. Setting everything up on the table, I tried to keep my thoughts as far away from that one topic as I could, but in one way or another it found itself crawling back into my brain, infesting too deeply for it to be removed. Sighing, I slouched back in my seat, my eyes glazing over as they failed to pay attention to the welcome screen that was currently on the laptop – why was this bothering me so much? I wasn’t ‘in love’ with him in the same way that he was with me, seeing as I hadn’t even remotely considered that possibility before last night happened, but now... now that’s all I could seem to think about, the way that Max had looked at me whilst confessing his attraction; there was definitely something there that I hadn’t seen before, almost like he thought he knew my answer. Well, at least before I’d ran out the door, anyway. To be honest, I still couldn’t believe that I’d just walked away from Max like that, even though I didn’t want the same things as him...  
  “Ticket please.” I had become so entangled in my thoughts that I’d failed to notice the ticket collector standing right next to me.  
  “Oh, right, sorry.” As I handed my ticket over, he rolled his eyes in a bored manner, like somehow it was _my_ fault that I hadn’t seen, or heard, him standing in front of me – how was I to blame when I was going over vitally important events in my brain?  
  He stamped the ticket and gave it back to me silently, only uttering a few words once he was out of earshot. Ignoring his diva-ness, I turned my attention back to my laptop, and uploaded the photos from last night, not having properly looked through them before now. As I began to scroll through each individual image in turn, I started to notice something – whenever Max was aware that the camera was on him, he would make a conscious effort to pull some sort of stupid face that would cause me to giggle, but when he didn’t notice the camera... the look of concentration on his face was incredible, and it was so obvious to anyone who saw him that there was nothing else in the world that he’d rather be doing, performing to thousands of people each night. After looking at it for a few more minutes, it finally hit me – Max had that exact same look on his face last night when he was asking me to come to America. He was serious, so serious, about it, and suddenly, everything started to make perfect sense in my head.  
  At that exact moment, the overhead speakers announced that we were in the station, so I was forced to cut my epiphany short and shove my laptop back into my bag before getting off the train. As I waited for a taxi to take me to the gig venue, there was only one thing that I was certain was going to happen tonight – and that was I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen tonight. 

  Arriving at the venue, I paid the taxi driver, grateful that I hadn’t let my mind wander like it had on the train. It was about 5pm when I arrived, so I had about two hours before the doors opened to try and find Max to talk to him. Every step that I took closer to that room I knew they’d be in, the stronger the butterflies in my stomach got – there was no way I could just walk in there and pretend that nothing had happened last night, because everything had changed now those words were out in the open. Bringing myself to a stop just in front of the green room door, my hand hovered over the door handle, my brain telling the rest of my body that I could just run away from all of this, ignore how any of this ever occurred. I stopped myself, however, as I knew there was no way I would be able to tear away from the friendships I had made over the past few months. Concentrating on the voices inside, I shoved the door open as quickly as I could, and was greeted by four puzzled expressions.  
  “Um, did the door do something to you, Soph?” Matt raised his eyebrows at me.  
  “No, I just… never mind, it’s not important,” I sighed internally, glad that they were oblivious to my prior conflictions. Sitting down by Josh, it took a moment for my brain to realise that there were only four members in the room when there should have been five. “Hey,” I whispered to Josh as inconspicuously as possible, “where’s Max?”  
  As he turned to face me properly, I could see that there was something not quite right in his expression. “Well we were all hoping he’d gone AWOL with you – I’ve been texting you all day about it.”  
  “Sorry, the battery died last night,” I replied vacantly. “So you don’t know where he is then?”  
  “No, and seeing as he already missed the sound check, it wouldn’t surprise me if he didn’t turn up at all tonight.”  
  I began to feel like the whole situation was my fault, like somehow my premature rejection was the reason he’d run away. “H-have you tried calling him?”  
  “Oh, thanks for that suggestion, we never would have thought of that on our own,” Josh sighed, his agitation turning into annoyance. “We’ve tried everything, and he hasn’t responded to anything.” He turned away from me, hanging his head down as he ran his hands through his hair. “And unless he comes back or we find someone to fill in for him, I don’t know what we’re gonna do about the show.”  
  It was at that moment that my willpower caved in. “It’s all my fault, Josh, I’m so sorry.”  
  “…What?” He lifted his head up, his eyes wide in disbelief.  
  “Well yesterday after the show, Max stopped me when I was about to leave and said he’d bought me a plane ticket to America with you guys, and I started telling him that I couldn’t go, then he was saying about how he felt about me and wanted to give us a go and, and…” I trailed off at that point, my voice having become loud enough to attract the attention of everyone else in the room.  
  “…And what?” Josh asked, still unaware we were being watched.  
  “I-I said no. But then I was on the train this morning and then I was looking at the photos from last night and it all made sense, and now…” After that, I couldn’t say anymore, my breath trapped deep in my throat. Clearly nobody knew what to do – they hadn’t seen me get so emotional before, and with them being guys, they had little experience of this area.  
  Now aware that our conversation was being eavesdropped, Josh was nominated as the person to try and comfort me. “Um, you just need to calm down, I’m sure things aren’t as bad as you think they are.”  
  My ability to speak remained missing, as I stared at him in disbelief. “You don’t get it! Max obviously thinks that there’s no chance between us, otherwise he’d be here, and clearly he’s not, so that means I’ve messed everything up. That really is typical of me, isn’t it? I’m just…” I had to stop again at that point, trying to hide the tears that had sprung up almost out of nowhere.  
  “Hey, don’t cry,” Josh attempted to rub my back in a soothing manner, but it did nothing for me as the worst thoughts possible were running through my head. “Everything will be fi…” His sentence was cut off as I heard the door open; lifting my head, to my surprise I was greeted with the sight of Max standing there, still wearing the same clothes from last night. Nobody knew what to say, what with the amount of information they had learnt in the past few minutes. “Where the _hell_ have you been?!”  
  “I’m sorry,” Max began to apologise, “I’ve just been…” He trailed off once he saw me and the state of my face. “Hey Soph. Did you get here okay?”  
  There was obvious pain behind his words, unmistakably from trying to hide any evidence of what happened between us last night. “Yeah.” I didn’t want to look at him, but I couldn’t bring myself to look away either.  
  “Good,” he murmured back, and then the room was plunged back into silence for a few moments.  
  Once again, it was Josh who spoke up. “Listen, I’m not entirely sure about what went on between you two last night, but you need to go outside and talk about it properly or something, okay?” His eyes flickered between Max and I, waiting to see if either of us would make the first move.  
  “…Okay then,” Max spoke softly, as if defeated, and opened the door again whilst looking at me. Seeing no other way out of it, I got up and followed him out of the room into the corridor, until we were far enough away that we were sure they wouldn’t be able to hear us. “Why are you crying Sophie?”  
  “I-I don’t know, it’s just… It’s about last night.” Once I said those words, he sighed heavily, trying to wave my thoughts away.  
  “Look, just forget about last night,” he spoke harshly, “it’s obvious I made a mistake about us, so…”  
  “I was wrong, okay?”  
  At first, I thought that his expression would change from confusion to happiness, but it stayed stuck on that initial confusion. “What? I don’t… I don’t get how you could have changed your mind about this in a single fucking day, it’s not like we’re talking about your next hair colour here.  
  “Hey, that’s not being fair on me here.”  
  “Oh, you want to talk about being ‘fair’, do you?” A snarl erupted on his face. “Well let me tell you, ‘fair’ is not messing up the speech you’ve been working on for the past week. ‘Fair’ is having a person listen to the whole thing before passing judgement. ‘ _Fair_ ’ is not having the person you haven’t been able to get out of your head for _months_ run away from the most serious conversation you’ve had in your entire life, all because they’re too scared to face up to that possibility.” There wasn’t anything I could say back to that, because every single word of it was true – I hadn’t given him a chance, all because I was too busy trying to protect myself. The silence echoed between us, both of us knowing that we’d acted too rashly. “…’Fair’ isn’t shouting at someone just because something didn’t go your way.”  
  “It’s not like you’re wrong though – I _did_ do all those things, and I _was_ unfair to you. To both of us.” I stared straight into his eyes, knowing it was now or never for what I was going to say next. “Max, I’m sorry, and... and what I said last night, I was wrong, okay? I set my mind on an answer too quickly and I didn’t give myself chance to think it over. But now I have, and… I’ve decided. I want to go to America with you guys.”  
  He nodded his head nonchalantly. “Okay then.”  
  “I want to go so that we have a chance at being together, just like you said.” It was then it finally seemed to register in Max’s mind what I was actually saying to him.  
  “Wait, so… just explain, what made you change your mind?”  
  “It was when I was looking through photos, and I realised that the look you have when you play on stage was the same look you had when you were talking to me, and then I knew just how dedicated your mind was,” I smiled softly at him. “I knew you were actually serious about it.”  
  Max didn’t say anything back; instead, he simply placed his hands around my waist, before pulling me into him and placing his lips on top of mine. To say that I wasn’t expecting it was an understatement, as I felt all of the air in my lungs rush out of my body instantly, while my brain helped to guide my hands onto the sides of his face, letting him stay there for just a moment longer. When it was over, he took my left hand in his right, and let them drop down between us as we walked back to the others, silent but beyond contented.


End file.
